Catered food behind ByteDance mass food poisoning case; SFA to take enforcement action

SINGAPORE: The investigation into the mass food poisoning incident at the Singapore office of TikTok owner ByteDance has concluded, with catered food found to be the cause.

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said in a Facebook post on Friday (Nov 29) that the Jul 30 incident was "one of the more serious food poisoning cases in recent years" and it will "take appropriate enforcement actions against the responsible parties for food safety lapses".

"Investigation findings have confirmed that catered food was the cause of the illnesses." 

The agency did not answer CNA's queries on the type of enforcement actions that will be taken and who the responsible parties are.

SFA said it had proactively directed the caterers involved - Yun Hai Yao and Pu Tien Service - to implement measures such as setting aside and disposing of all prepared food once the gastroenteritis incident happened.

Health authorities suspended the food business operations of the two caterers, Yun Hai Yao at Northpoint City and Pu Tien Services at Senoko South Road, a day after the incident.

Yun Hai Yao runs the Yun Nans chain of restaurants, while Pu Tien Services is the central and catering kitchen of Putien.  

SFA lifted the suspension of Pu Tien's Senoko catering kitchen on Aug 10, and did the same for Yun Hai Yao at Northpoint City on Aug 16.

It added in the same Facebook post that both caterers had complied with the order to dispose of ready-to-eat food, thawed food and perishable food items.

Pu Tien, however, was allowed to retain some food items in its in-house inventory. SFA said the caterer had appealed to them to exempt those food items from disposal.

This was permitted after the agency conducted further testing and "did not uncover any food safety concerns" through those tests.

BYTEDANCE'S SINGAPORE OFFICE 

According to the Ministry of Health (MOH) and SFA, a total of 130 people reported having gastroenteritis symptoms and 57 were taken to the hospital on the day of the incident.

The staff members had become ill after visiting the canteen on the 26th floor, ByteDance then said in a company announcement to employees.

CNA understands that ByteDance engages licensed external vendors to cater food for its offices, and that food is not prepared or cooked at its office premises in Singapore.

FOOD SAFETY MEASURES TAKEN BY BOTH CATERERS

Pu Tien Services said in a statement on Aug 10 that it had kept samples from all food delivered to ByteDance's office on the day of the incident and sent the food samples for independent third-party laboratory testing and analysis.

"The laboratory results confirmed that all the food samples met the food safety regulations established by SFA," it added.

"The results also confirmed that both listeria and salmonella, bacteria known to cause food poisoning, were not detected in any of the samples."

SFA said at the time of the lifting of their respective suspensions that both caterers had cleaned and sanitised their premises, including equipment and utensils, and disinfected food preparation surfaces, tables and floors.

Their food handlers had also re-attended and passed a course on food safety, while their food hygiene officers re-attended and passed the Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) conduct food & beverage hygiene audit course.

If found to be in violation of food hygiene regulations, offenders can be fined up to S$2,000 (US$1,500) and, in the case of a continuing offence, fined a maximum of S$100 for every day or part thereof during which the offence continues after conviction.